Route Puzzle

[Tcat]

Posted this in the handheld forum by mistake.

Hi I wonder if someone can shed light on why my 730 insists on including a ferry (train ride really) at a place called Brig - Iselle Switzerland on a route from Dunkerque in France to Stresa on Lake Maggiore Italy.

Google earth and Via Michelin give a much better route. When TomTom askes me about taking ferries I say no but it says there is not a route without a ferry. TomTom route planner also gives the same route. Looks like I need to plan my journey using itinerary planning. My TT maps are around two years old.
Just curious if anyone else sees this.

[dhn]

Well, if your maps are 2 years old, they don't have IQ routing implemented. That could be part of the problem. Besides the 'avoid ferry' restriction, what other(s) do you have checked in Planning Prefs?
_________________
David

[Tcat]

Thanks for your reply David I have Always plan fastest route checked, ask me when there are HOV lanes on my route and avoid unpaved roads.

Terry

[theripper]

It could be that TT thinks the ferry route is quicker than the road route(is it?). It could be a bit like Brixham-Dartmouth

[Andy_P]

[Tcat]

Yes Andy makes sense if you use the TT route planner here http://www.routes.tomtom.com/t/#/ you will see the route I get from my TT730. Brig-Isselle seems to be the tunnel terminal. I am going to follow Via Michelin Routes Michelin time = 10.56hrs TT 10.34 not much in it but the Michelin route is a lot less expensive.

Thanks all for your help

[GerryC]

I see what you mean on the TT route planner. Do you know what this "ferry" is? If it's a train then I expect it's a similar situation to the Channel Tunnel which is an available route for cars.

For info, it starts at Brig-Glis and goes SE for 21km.

I would have thought it should bypass it when you ask not to use ferries though - but this not be marked as a "ferry" even though that's what it's called on the map. One way round that I can think of is to put a POI or favourite on the line and then choose to "avoid" it to find another route.

Just a thought, what have you set for tolled roads?

EDIT: Andy, were you calculating using a LIVE route. It's just that both ends of the tunnel show a traffic "incident" of "Reopened" at the moment. Did you route round a closed tunnel?
_________________
Gerry
TomTom730T
Cameralert for Android
Brodit ProClip mount

[Andy_P]

[rfp2001]

Brig-Iselle is not a place but the car train from Brig, in Switzerland, to Iselle in Italy. Saves a drive over the alps. Does this help?

[Tcat]

Big thanks to all for your help.
Since I will have a caravan attached to the rear of the car I did not want to have the expense of boarding a train. I have since removed all my TT settings and reverted to factory settings and like magic, I have now got a decent route which follows the ViaMichelin route very closely using toll roads and motorways, not sure which setting was causing the problem.
It is also a pity that TT's web site route planning does not allow preferences to be specified similar to ViaMichelin, or does it? may be I am not looking in the right places.

Again thanks all

Terry

[Orac1]

All current TomTom Satnavs make a false assumption regarding ferry crossings that renders their route planning completely useless on routes that would involve a ferry crossing (be it a car on a ferry boat or a car on a railway train service).

That false assumption is that your vehicle can drive immediately on to the ferry which it expects to be waiting at the terminal without you even encountering the 15 minutes or so for loading and departing involved if you happened to turn up when the next rail ferry or boat ferry was soon about to leave.

So plan any route from London down to Studland in Dorset on a sunny summer weekend and TomTom cheerfully always assumes it can drive straight on the ferry at Sandbanks and makes no allowance for the 50 minute wait to board a ferry that you may typically encounter on a busy day. So hence it takes you through Bournemouth and on the Sandbanks ferry instead of taking the actually quicker but significantly longer route via Wareham and Corfe Castle.

Similarly if you plan any route from the UK to Mallorca a TomTom Satnav (even an HD traffic capable one which has no excuse as it can connect to the ferry operator to search for the next ferry time) will assume that you can cross immediately to the island from Barcelona the moment you arrive there by the lesser used and more infrequent ferry service to Alcudia, even though the journey on that ferry is over 7 hours long. TomTom makes no allowance at all for the fact that your next ferry may not leave for another 23 hours after you get to Barcelona or for the fact that faster ferries taking only 3.5 hours cross between Barcelona and Palma (the capital of Mallorca) usually every 12 hours.

In short allowing for the existence of the mobile data connection on a TomTom Live unit the assumptions made about ferries and their availability are utterly and shockingly incorrect. Most disturbingly for a journey to Mallorca is that even if you want to go to Palma in Mallorca (the capital) the TomTom still tries to take you on the ferry to Alcudia, some 50 miles and one hour across the island from Palma on the other side of the island.

If your journey involves a ferry you will need to access the timetables yourself and add your own estimate of when the next ferry leaves on to TomTom's simple journey time using the boat or train ferry that makes no such allowance at all for the ferry timetable and when the next ferry actually leaves.

[mikealder]

The Live services don't connect to the ferry operators so the device is "blind" to the times they operate at, the same applies to the channel Tunnel.

In theory such a connection could be possible, but for now the device is really only offering driving time + ferry crossing time, it does assume a direct drive straight on to the boat which would then set of immediately, it does the same for all ports though so any delay due to waiting for departure is pot luck unless you know the ferry times prior to setting off to the port.

I can't see TomTom bothering adding real time ferry information via the Live service though to be honest as it would only be of use to a very small percentage of device owners a few times a year, in contrast the current Google search and HD Traffic are used daily by a high percentage of Live device owners - Mike

[Orac1]

[Anita]

[Orac1]

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